Doug Clark's Reviews > Stolen Prey

John Sandford, the pseudonym for Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, John Camp, writes two main series of police/crime procedurals featuring Lucas Davenport (the Prey novels, started in 1989, and currently at 23 novels) and Virgil Flowers (the Virgil Flowers series, started in 2007 and now at 6 novels). Lucas Davenport started as a police officer in the Minneapolis Police Force. Writing computer/video games in his spare time, he later sold his company for a large amount of money. He also rose quickly to be a homicide cop dealing with extremely violent and dangerous criminals who, often in the earlier novels of the series, were serial killers. Because of his independent loner attitude and methods, he eventually was forced to resign, although he returned as a Deputy Chief. He now is the lead investigator for Minnesota’s Department of Public Safety’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. Davenport is very smart and dogged in his investigations. He’s also usually unorthodox and not afraid of taking the law into his own hands. In many ways, he is “Dirty” Harry Callahan.

Virgil Flowers is an investigator for Davenport with the BCA. Davenport sends Flowers out into rural Minnesota to investigate and solve difficult crimes. Flowers, an avid fisherman who is a successful writer for outdoor magazines, has been divorced several times and is referred to by other officers and associates as “that f***ing Flowers” for his propensity to sleep with women while on a case. He always seems to take his boat with him in case he has the chance to do some fishing. Flowers is an extremely intelligent detective whose appearance in heavy metal or obscure band t-shirts tends to make people underestimate him.

Both of these series are very fast reads and thoroughly enjoyable. I am always excited when a new one comes out. I tend to stop whatever else I’m reading and read these immediately. One of the parts I enjoy most in Sandford’s writings is his strength in writing dialogue. There are passages of dialogue that are filled with cop humor which I enjoy. The only other genre writer that is as good, if not better, is Elmore Leonard.

Stolen Prey is Davenport’s 22nd run around the block. The novel opens with Davenport being mugged by two drug addicts at an ATM. During the scuffle, he breaks his wrist. This angers Davenport so he sends Virgil Flowers downstate to find the muggers. Periodically, throughout the novel, we return to Flowers’ investigation, but that is only a subplot. The main body of the novel is the investigation of the brutal torture and slaying of a man, his wife, two children and three dogs. The violence leads the investigators to suspect that a Mexican drug gang is behind the murders, but there doesn’t seem to be any reason why. The husband runs a software company that sells software in Spanish, but the Federal investigators can’t really locate any type of money-laundering operation. A Mexican detective and his assistant also arrive to help the investigation. As it turns out there are three Mexican hitmen looking for stolen money. Their attempt to find and recover the money leads to more and more violence. The tension is continually ratcheted up and makes the book difficult to put down. By the end the main plot and the subplot are resolved, but not in a neat bow.

Shock Wave is the 5th Virgil Flowers novel. In this one, Flowers is investigating a bomber who seems to be upset with the construction and building of a Walmart-like superstore in the small town of Butternut Falls. Not only was the headquarters in Michigan somehow bombed, but several other targets were hit in Butternut Falls, including an attempt on Virgil Flowers himself that results in the destruction of his fishing boat. In the course of solving the bombing, Flowers encounters political corruption and uncovers the complex reasons behind the crimes. As with Stolen Prey, the dialogue is great and the novel is engrossing.

If anyone enjoys crime procedurals, the Davenport and Flowers’ novels are great choices. I readily recommend them.